Watered Down
by Simple-Minded Idiot
Summary: Sometimes, the replacement just can't fully carry out its purpose because the routine doesn't allow it to.


For Kai-puu (I hope that the story somewhat passes standards.)

Concrit would be loved beyond belief.

A-and. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

* * *

Making _Art_ was the only luxury Sai had ever allowed himself to. Rather, it was the only thing he was good at aside from things that were ninja-related.

It made him experience this unknown, electrifying feeling. It felt as if he was running a mile a minute. It felt as if he was just about to die, just about to touch _heaven_.

Making Art made him feel as if he was on drugs. At least that was the presumption he'd drawn based from how he observed druggies.

Albeit nowadays, there was something else that made him feel that heavenly high that Making Art made him feel.

Being With Team Seven.

So then, he only thought that it was natural to combine the two things that he _loved_ — he was still getting a hang of its concept though, but he was sure that what he felt for those two things was love as it seemed to fit Sakura's description of it — in order for him to experience a great amount of happiness.

(Hopefully, the way he smiled would look more natural so that he could disarm more people with it. A friendly-looking disposition had always helped, they said.)

* * *

Sakura was teaching him how to make origami cranes.

It was their day-off.

The two of them had met in some art supply store. She had been looking for paper of good quality to make cranes out of. He had been looking for new scrolls and canvases.

She had looked at him for a while before she, in a light tone, asked him if he knew how to make origami cranes without the use of any jutsu. He had shook his head and then she'd said that she would teach him if he wanted to. He, deciding that he would probably learn something worthwhile other than knowing how to make cranes, nodded his head.

Around half an hour later, they were in Sakura's living room with all sorts of colored paper around them.

"You don't seem like the sort of person who makes these things," Sai commented after Sakura gave another instruction.

Sakura's right eyebrow twitched. "What does that mean?"

"It means what it means." Sai smiled. He could feel that she was resisting the urge to punch him. She probably didn't want to mess her living room.

"And to think that I'm teaching you how to do this, too."

"I'm thankful. But that doesn't mean that I'm not surprised. You don't look as if you spend your time making something as useless as this."

"Does it seem like that?"

Sai nodded.

"I never noticed," Sakura said, a somewhat dreamy tone tainting her words.

She looked away from him and continued to teach him, a faraway look in her eyes. She was whispering a bit. She was probably retelling the story of how she came about to want to learn making paper cranes to herself. Sai couldn't help but eavesdrop. Though even if he didn't listen to her, he already had an inkling that it had something to do with _him_.

(When had it never been about that guy? Team Seven looked as if they lived and breathed for him. _For Sasuke_.)

* * *

Naruto was sparring with him.

Naruto seemed a bit distracted though. A bit more aggressive and impulsive than the usual, too.

If Sai could remember correctly, someone had brought up the topic of The Uchiha Clan again. And this was right after they had failed to retrieve Sasuke yet again.

Naruto's back hit a tree trunk, having just gotten a solid hit on his stomach from one of Sai's creations. He swore and then ran right back into the fray, well intent on beating those "ink blots."

Sai could only wonder what exactly was important about Uchiha Sasuke that Naruto would want to protect his bonds with the guy so much. As far as Sai had seen, it seemed as if Sasuke couldn't even bring himself to, in right amounts, reciprocate the _love_ — or whatever it may have truly been — that Naruto and Sakura gave him.

Whenever Sai thought more about bonds, he grew more and more confused of it.

Why would people do so much for someone who hardly cared about them?

That was simply stupid in his opinion.

The pursuers gained no advantage. They gained nothing but aches if Naruto and Sakura's reactions were to go by.

It was all simply meaningless.

Naruto got knocked down yet again, but he was quick to get back on his feet. He conjured up more than a couple of clones. His eyes seemed to have a rather fierce glint on them as he began another barrage of attacks.

Yet why, Sai thought as he looked upon the battle, did Naruto choose to still run after what seemed to be a dream.

He drew yet another figure in his scroll to battle with Naruto.

(He then concluded that maybe Team 7 wasn't known for their logic.)

* * *

"I like you," Sai said, "the two of you."

They'd barely come alive out of a mission. Currently, they were all in the room where Naruto was being retained in. He, as always, had received the most injuries. Though they didn't at all suspect that he would be the first one to get completely healed.

After the horrific events that had come across in that particular mission, Sai decided that this was the best time to _confess_ what was in his mind, thinking that perhaps they would be able to clarify what was going on in his head.

Even he didn't know who he was anymore nowadays — Root, Team 7, Konoha; he could only remain faithful to one and he wasn't quite sure what the best choice was.

"Sai," Sakura said, her voice wavering and sounding a bit apologetic.

Sai closed his eyes — screwed his eyes shut and made Sakura bite her lip and Naruto's hands shake — and smiled. For some reason, he couldn't bear to look at her. Or him.

It was all such confusing business.

He'd never been trained to handle situations like these.

"We can't..." she said, trailing off.

"Sasuke-kun, isn't it?" Sai asked.

He opened his eyes to look at his _teammates_.

He was quite sure that Sakura would end up having bloody lips with the way she was sawing on her lower lip with her teeth.

"It's not... It's not..." she tried to say.

Where did the confident Sakura that he knew go to?

"It is," Sai said.

"We like you, too," Sakura said in such a way that it seemed as if she was trying to convince herself of her own words.

The only thing Sai knew was that she was lying. It was the way that her voice wavered and her shoulders slightly shook.

He supposed that if ever she went into enemy hands, she would end up spilling the truth sooner or later. If she couldn't even lie properly to a teammate, how else could she lie to everyone else?

"But you like Sasuke-kun far too much," Sai supplied.

"Who could even like that bastard?" Naruto asked as he crossed his arms around his chest and looked out of the window, his brows knotted.

"You don't lie very well, dickless."

"... Shut up, Sai. Nobody asked for your opinion anyway."

They became silent after that. Though Sai could hear Naruto heavily breathing, as if he was angry, and Sakura still fidgeting a bit, feeling rather jittery.

He had no place in this team.

"Is he really that important?" he found himself asking not a minute later.

Sakura fisted her hands into her shirt. She gripped the fabric as if it was her only lifeline.

"He—" she started to say.

"He is," Naruto said, rasping a bit.

He looked at Sai with _that_ determination burning in his eyes.

And Sai couldn't bear to look away.

It wasn't as if Naruto's eyes were a piece of art — the color was amazing and the shape was rather nice — which was why he, being the artist that he partially was, couldn't break the stare.

He actually wouldn't be able to answer if anyone asked him why he continued to look at Naruto.

He just... did.

Which he found exceedingly odd, of course. Because he _didn't do things without reason_. It wasn't what he was taught.

"Can I take Sasuke-kun's place for a while?" Sai asked.

Sakura screwed her eyes shut and violently shook her head. Her teeth had finally broken the skin of her lower lip.

"Don't say that," she said. "Don't you even _dare_ say that again."

"What's the matter with you?" Naruto asked. "Saying all of this. It's not like you. At all."

"Just a thought," Sai said.

(If there was no Sasuke, he wondered if they would love him if they met him.)

* * *

"I am Sai and nobody else."

He found himself saying that in front of a mirror.

He felt emotions stirring inside of him. Though these emotions were not akin to the one he'd felt when he first saw Sasuke.

These emotions seemed to have more of an impact on him.

"But occasionally, I am Sasuke," he continued.

He didn't even know what he was saying anymore. Perhaps he wasn't even the one talking.

It was plausible that his mind had been taken over. Then again, he never felt the same after Being With Team Seven.

There were two curt knocks on his door.

"Sai! Hurry up!" Sakura shouted. "Naruto's becoming impatient!"

Sai smiled and then made his way to the door. He couldn't keep them waiting, after all.

As soon as the door opened, Sakura grabbed his and Naruto's hands and sped off to their destination. Sai smiled despite the bone-crushing hold she had on him.

The only way to deal with animosity was a bright outlook in life.

Her grip really hurt.

(Names were only names, weren't they? They were disposable, replaceable things.)

* * *

They were leaving him and they didn't even know.

As soon as Naruto jumped from the cliff (in his usual barbaric style; arms and legs spread apart, and his throat raw from all of the yelling he was doing) and Sakura scrambled, soon to follow him in his descent (she was tired and sweaty; her eyes still had a certain twinkle to them though), Sai felt his eyes moisten.

He touched the part near his left eye. It was wet.

His own piece of paradise was probably gone now.

(Those from Root didn't have any future, after all.)


End file.
